Having spent much of his life in Montana and Wyoming, Onward?s Toby Knapp has a nearly unbelievable biography: he made an album for Shrapnel Records at age when most men are more concerned with registering with Selective Service than shredding, then went on to form Darken, a collective more unholy than you can imagine, then left it behind, moved back home, and played in bars. Believe that? Well, you probably won?t believe how matter-of-fact Knapp is about it all, either.

Approaching the success he?s experienced with a grain of salt the size of his home state (at least), you get the feeling, after talking with Knapp for a time, that he?d be just as happy changing oil as playing guitar and that his role in Onward is a healthy dose of gravy he?s allowed himself but doesn?t need. No matter, Onward (now at work on their third release) have proven themselves a promising enough commodity that Knapp probably won?t be reaching for a Jiffy Lube application soon.

Onward's current release, Reawaken, is available from Century Media. Please visit http://www.evermoving.com for more information on the band.

JB: What was it like for you to be a young person interested in playing music but living in a small town where that probably wasn?t considered a ?real profession? an where you didn?t have other people around you who?d actually gone professional?

TK: I?m sort of grateful to have grown up here. It?s such a boring place that I had to find things to do to keep myself occupied. That?s sort of what forced me into being a hermit and concentrating on music. The alternative around here is dragging main, drunk.

JB: You were part of the ?Hometown Heroes? feature in Guitar World magazine at one point. What was that like for you?

TK: It was funny because that was my first goal as player: I wanted to be included in that article. I figured, ?Once I make it into ?Hometown Heroes,? I?m happy, my career is done.? That was the goal. After I achieved it, I thought, ?I need something else now.?

JB: You started out listening to the more traditional stuff I think we all did early on: Aerosmith, etc. But then you gravitated toward darker music. What was the catalyst for that change?

TK: It was around ?89 or ?90 when the death metal movement really gained ground, especially out of Florida. I think a lot of traditional metal fans were intrigued by that. Traditional metal was waning and we needed something fresh and when Deicide and Morbid Angel came out, it was very exciting. They were going into territories I?d never heard before. I?d progressed like a lot of metal fans did. You start with your Zeppelin, you?re into Dio and Loudness, then you?re into the black metal scene. But it was also a thing where I wanted to listen to and collect the most evil music I could.

JB: There is interesting stuff going on with death and black metal, musically. Was that also part of what attracted you to playing it?

TK: Totally. It was totally satisfying to hear that stuff. One band in particular that was inspired me was a band called Hellwitch. They were really cool: it was the most technical music I?d ever heard. It was death metal but they were throwing in all kinds of odd time signatures and as a musician, I was completely blown away by what they were doing. So, the musical aspects of the more extreme music are definitely looking into.

JB: How did the first Onward album come into being? How do you view it now?

TK: It was almost a complete fluke. We didn?t even know what it was going to be. Somebody financed us for a studio in Denver before we even had a singer. So I belted out eight old-school metal tunes. It was almost for our own enjoyment than anything. We weren?t even an official band. It was just a project we were doing just to get our rocks off. I wasn?t even looking for a career in music at that point. I still wanted to play, do heavy metal but I didn?t really want anything to do with establishing a career. But the album took on a life of its own. I didn?t even lift a finger in the process. But it got me back in the game.

JB: What happened with Reawaken?

TK: That?s when I knew it was serious business. I realized more people were going to be hearing it. So, we buckled down and took that one seriously.

JB: Were you really at a point before this band where you thought, ?Well, I?ve had my fun, this is it??

TK: Pretty much. At that point in time, I was twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. I?d already been on Shrapnel records and I?d already done some things. I was just giving guitar lessons and playing in a cover band in a bar. To me, that was good enough. I didn?t have stars in my eyes anymore. I figured, ?Well, I?ve had my shot, it?s time to get real.? But it?s nice that everything?s moving along again. I?m definitely not upset. But, I think that if you have a goal, you really have to release it and give up on it. That opens up the doors, I think, if you?re not so concentrated on an outcome.
Once I gave up on a music career, I had a music career again.

JB: If the same thing were to happen again and this band fell apart, would you feel comfortable just going back home?

TK: I could do it. I wouldn?t be crushed. Anything that happens from here on in is just another great, unexpected thing.

JB: Were there things that you were really turned off about within the music business?

TK: Yeah [laughs]. Nothing is the way it?s supposed to be. I was naive when I signed to Shrapnel. I figured, ?My album?s going to come out, I?m going to sell 40,000 copies, then I?m going to join Megadeth if Marty leaves.? Then, I learned the reality of the situation. Back then, I thought anybody who had a record out was rich. I?d look at an album by Attacker or Omen and say, ?Wow! Those guys have mansions!?

JB: I had the same thoughts at one time [laughs]. I know that over the years you?ve also given guitar lessons. What are some of things you try to impress upon your guitar students?

TK: I really make them start from square one. A lot of times kids just want to play like Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani and think that it can be done overnight. But I?ll start them with the Yardbirds and Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. I try to emphasize that you need to be a really well-rounded blues player, whether you like or not. It?ll help your rock playing in the future. I hear a lot of guitar players who shred but they miss a lot of really cool blues things they could interject. I?ve seen students jump directly in to neoclassical guitar and they can learn to do those things but they have no soul behind them.

JB: Do you have students who come to you wanting to be one kind of guitar player but who walk away being a very different kind of player? Or do you say, ?Hey, this kid wants to play Limp Bizkit, I?m going to help him play Limp Bizkit??

TK: That?s been the case a lot. If they come to me and they want to learn Limp Bizkit, I will show it to them but, eventually, they?re going to get bored with it. They see how easy it is and then I try to turn them onto other forms of music. Nine out of ten students I have will probably come in as a Limp Bizkit fan but they leave obsessed with old Shrapnel records. Once a guitar player hears great ?80s shred, that?s the way they want to go.

JB: Are there instruments you listen to and then try to apply what you hear to the guitar?

TK: I really like the sound of keyboards. Basically any intriguing melody from any instrument is what fires me up. These days, I don?t sit around and listen to guitar players, I listen to all kinds different things. Right now I?m listening to ?70s AM pop music. It?s corny but it?s got great melodies and some ideas that are slowly working their way into our music.

JB: Some people view cover bands as a dead-end, while others say, ?Hey, if you want to learn how to write songs, this is the way to do it and you get to play with other musicians.? How do you see it?

TK: You nailed it right there. You can play with other musicians, you?re out gigging regularly and none of that can hurt. Some people get into bar bands and they choose to stay there because you can make a living at it. More power to them. Everybody has their definition of what success is. For some people, that?s having a happening bar band. I think it?s a good thing to play in a bar band. It doesn?t hurt. I think you have to go out there and play with other people, even if you have to play stuff you don?t like.

JB: Do you always learn something from another musician, even if their not as good as you?

TK: Everybody has got something cool that they do. You soak up all kinds of things from different people. One person I took a lot of influence from was Tony Fredianelli [Third Eye Blind]. He produced my first album and I?d never met a musician of that caliber. It was amazing to work with him and watch how easy it was for him. For me, it?s always been about practicing, keeping my chops up. This guy can pick up a guitar at the drop of dime and start shredding. It?s like, ?Damn, don?t you want to warm up for an hour first??

JB: Can you talk a little bit about your own practice routine? How simple do you start, how complex do you go and what problems do you give yourself to solve along the way?

TK: I start off doing simple chromatic things. I work with very simple things and start building from there. I improvise a little and if I see a trouble spot with picking or something, then I?ll focus on that and try to make it better. For me, guitar is such a weird thing because I have good days and bad days. On good days, I?ll play things that make me go, ?Wow! I?m really playing well, I wish I could play like this all the time.? Then, other times, I just won?t have it together. But it?s always been that way with me. One thing I?ve noticed is that when I was younger and I practiced eight hours a day it would help me and I?d improve. But in recent years I?ve found that more detrimental. I?ve found that I become overly critical when I do that.

JB: Have you ever had periods where you?ve put the guitar down for a few weeks at a time, just to get away from it, because you?ve run into a wall?

TK: I think there was a period in the mid-?90s where I didn?t even touch a guitar for half a year, except to give lessons. It was because there was a low-inspiration factor. It?s just a love/hate relationship. It?s something I do and I?ve got to make do with it.

JB: Do you say, then, ?This is it. Maybe I won?t play again or I have to wait it out and see if I feel like playing again??